Elected Officials to Protect America: Our Mission

To create a safe, prosperous, and healthy planet, we empower bold leadership from elected officials and civic leaders to protect our environment, and fight climate change.

As current and former elected officials who care deeply about protecting our planet and people from the dangers of climate change, EOPA educates through value-based storytelling, training lawmakers, and connecting elected officials to inspire strong environmental policy. We are led by veterans and frontline lawmakers, and work to help them lead national policy conversations.

This summer, we will launch our nation-wide bus tour to demand a Federal Climate Emergency Plan to address the escalating climate crisis. Led by veterans who are in office, we will educate, train, and organize officials, media, and the public in 32 cities across the country.

Through visual, value-based storytelling, EOPA investigates the dangers and of climate impacts on global water security as well as solutions open to communities and countries across the globe. We have completed two short documentaries with more in production. Learn more.

EOPA is led by veteran lawmakers who are committed to continuing to protect our nation from the dangers of water insecurity and climate change. After years of dedicated service abroad, veterans know first hand the dangers associated with climate change and are working across the aisle to create lasting solutions. One project we tackled with them was make to Congress reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund this year, preserving our public lands.

Our efforts began in New York State, where we organized over a thousand elected officials to demand that Governor Coumo ban fracking. Since that ban was established in 2014, we have worked with elected across the State on fossil fuel divestment and funding for renewables.

Starting in 2017, we worked to coalesce elected officials around Brown’s Last Chance, a campaign to have the then-Governor put an end date on fossil fuel extraction in CA. Today we continue that work through a statewide network of hundreds of elected officials protecting people and planet.

In Maine, we work with public officials to document the impacts on water supply already happening as the climate warms. This was the subject of one of our Code Blue mini-documentaries, a series which will be continuing throughout coming months.

Arizona is in the crosshairs of foreign nationals aiming to buy out America’s drinking water. In one of our videos, we expose Saudi Arabia for grabbing US water rights and land to grow cattle feed, despite an 18-year drought throughout this region of the Southwest.

Join Us

1. Producing 100% clean, renewable energy, starting with significant investments in disadvantaged communities and places most affected by pollution and currently dependent on fossil fuel jobs.

2. End permitting of new oil, gas, and coal projects and infrastructure, and begin a swift, managed decline of fossil fuel production, starting with phasing out production within a 2,500-foot public health buffer zone of occupied buildings and vulnerable areas, where the greatest harms occur.

3. End public subsidization of fossil fuels, divest from fossil fuel companies, and shift public investments to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy and help pay for the harm fossil fuels cause our states and municipalities; for example, a modest fee on fossil fuel production would generate billions of dollars to support workers and communities in the transition to 100% clean energy, creating good, family-sustaining jobs and stimulating our economies.